From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:49985 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757926Ab3BNRZW (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:25:22 -0500 Message-ID: <511D1DF5.2060802@redhat.com> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:25:09 -0600 From: Eric Sandeen MIME-Version: 1.0 To: =?ISO-8859-15?Q?Luk=E1=A8_Czerner?= CC: Chris Murphy , Dave Chinner , Karel Zak , xfs@oss.sgi.com, Zach Brown , linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] xfs_mkfs: wipe old signatures from the device References: <1360667215-14701-1-git-send-email-lczerner@redhat.com> <20130212202753.GC26694@dastard> <20130213080154.GC18597@x2.net.home> <20130213121655.GA7799@x2.net.home> <20130213221720.GH26694@dastard> <982B8DBB-3FBA-4213-BC92-848A64C60110@colorremedies.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Sender: linux-btrfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On 2/14/13 2:36 AM, LukᨠCzerner wrote: > On Thu, 14 Feb 2013, Chris Murphy wrote: > >> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:29:59 -0700 >> From: Chris Murphy >> To: Dave Chinner >> Cc: Karel Zak , LukᨠCzerner , >> xfs@oss.sgi.com, sandeen@redhat.com, Zach Brown , >> linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org >> Subject: Re: [PATCH] xfs_mkfs: wipe old signatures from the device >> >> >> On Feb 13, 2013, at 3:17 PM, Dave Chinner wrote: >>> it is the responsibility of filesystem >>> tools to behave sanely, not for the rest of the world to have to >>> work around the dangerous behaviour of a specific filesystems' >>> toolset. >> >> I appreciate this, and in particular that mkfs.xfs doesn't nerf a file system without the use of -f; even an existing XFS file system. Considering most data loss is user induced, I'd appreciate it if other file systems's tools weren't so easily made belligerent by (hopefully temporarily) confused apes wearing pants. >> >> Chris Murphy > > I would not be so optimistic about it. The reason being that there > are almost _always_ old file system signatures on the device. So I > think that it got to the point where users will usually use mkfs.xfs > -f all the time. I know I do ;) But as Dave points out, fs developers are odd ducks. > And even if they did not and they would use a wrong > device they would probably get the same warning even for the device > they wanted to use in the first place. I was thinking, as annoying as it might be, requiring the user to use "-f $OLD_FS_TYPE" might require a bit more positive action and cognition on the admin's part. OTOH, that could get annoying, and break old scripts. :) -Eric > So even thoug it might help in some cases I do not think that we > should go and change all file systems to do that as well, it would > not be very useful anyway. > > -Lukas >